


How to Pine From Afar Successfully

by AbsentMinds



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Multi, this is just cute and fun tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28384512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsentMinds/pseuds/AbsentMinds
Summary: Azriel runs a coffee shop and has been crushing on two very attractive customers. However, he is very confused when they both give him their numbers. What on Earth could that mean?
Relationships: Elain Archeron/Azriel/Lucien Vanserra
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	How to Pine From Afar Successfully

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for my acotar secret snowflake on tumblr @simping4bookboisngrls, who you should definitely follow! If you want crack ships for acotar and tog then she's your gal! 
> 
> Anyway, this is just a load of fun, it didn't really have much of a plot. I nearly didn't post it, so thank you to my beta reader StarkRavings for convincing me not to delete this entire fic.

Azriel was conflicted in a way he had never been conflicted before. He had made difficult decisions before, but this felt different like there was more at stake. How did anyone expect him to choose between two stunning people giving him their numbers? If only he could date them both, he lamented. 

Azriel's dating life had never been particularly exciting since it mostly consisted of pining from afar for the people he was interested in and feeling deeply uncomfortable every time someone tried to hit on him. It was safe to say he was pretty shocked to have not one but two people interested in him. But of course, that would happen at the same time. And worse still, Azriel wasn't sure what was going on with the two people, as they came into his coffee shop  _ together!  _ It was just his luck that nobody was interested in him for so long, and then suddenly there were two people interested in him at the same time. 

The thing is, Azriel wasn't sure what their deal was. They always came in together and looked so cosy, there's no way they couldn't be dating, right? He had seen the occasional peck on the cheek they gave each other and how close they sat. They couldn't be just friends, but that didn't explain why two people would give him their numbers on the same paper. Was it a joke? A competition between the two? Were they inviting him to join them in a threesome? Azriel just couldn't figure it out for the life of him, but he was cautiously excited. He hoped more than anything that it wasn't a joke. 

The cute girl with the golden-brown hair had beamed at him when he had taken the paper from them, whereas the hot redhead gave him a knowing smirk that instantly had his face heating. They hadn't said anything after they handed the paper to him, they had simply taken their coffee and left, the red-haired guy giving him a wink as they walked out of the door. 

Azriel tried to pretend he wasn't disappointed they had left so soon. Usually, they liked to sit for a while, and Azriel would offer to work the till so he could watch them while pretending to work. Cassian seemed to have figured out why he was suddenly so eager to work at the front rather than hide in the back like he usually does. It didn't seem like Cassian had told anyone about Azriel's new interest, but the smirks and knowing looks were starting to irritate Az. Still, it was better than him telling Rhys and Mor. That particular brand of chaos was the last thing he wanted to be involved in anything even remotely connected to his love life. 

He was too scared to ring or text either one of them, was what he had decided. There was no way he could do that. But he had saved their numbers into his phone anyway, and it did give him a little thrill to see the names Elain and Lucien in his contacts. Of course, he had known their names before, but he had tried very hard to pretend he didn't. He didn't want to seem like a creepy stalker who knew their names, but hey, it wasn't his fault that he had to call their names for their coffee. Cassian always laughed when he called their names out while trying to pretend that he didn't know who he was calling. 

Instead of ringing or texting either of them, Azriel had started working in the front of the café a lot more. He hadn't said anything to anyone, but Cassian kept winking and nudging him. It was getting irritating, but Azriel was on edge which probably didn't help with that. He didn't want to miss them, because he hoped having a conversation in person with Elain and Lucien would clear things up for him. Maybe they would be more clear about why they left him their numbers. 

He was desperate to understand what was going on because he had decided to go to Cassian for advice. They were sat in the little office Azriel had set up for himself. Cassian was sat hugging a pillow that he had on the little sofa in the corner of the room. "Do you think maybe they gave me their numbers for business reasons? Like she's a florist, so maybe she wants to advertise her flower displays in the café? And he must be her business partner or something." He looked up when Cassian didn't respond, only to be hit in the face with a pillow. Well, he supposed that told him what Cassian thought of that theory. 

"That was uncalled for Cass!" 

"No, it wasn't. I will beat the stupid out of you. Maybe I should borrow Nesta's spray bottle." 

"Nesta's what? Is that how she's trying to get you to behave?" 

Cassian responded with a roguish grin which left Azriel wishing he had never asked. 

Before Cassian could open his mouth to say something that would probably traumatise Azriel, Nuala came into the office. "Boss, both your crushes walked in just now." 

"I, what, I don't, erm, I have no idea what you're talking about," Azriel stuttered awkwardly, trying not to show how excited he was that they were back. It was their first time back since they had given their numbers, and Azriel was relieved. He was worried that he has scared them off or something by not contacting them. 

"Sure you don't," Nuala replied in a flat sounding tone. "But the people who you don't have a thing for may leave if you don't get out there and serve them soon." 

Azriel scrambled to get up, quickly grabbing his apron and putting it on. He completely ignored Cassian's laughter following him out as he left his office. He tried to school his face into something neutral as he saw the two of them stood at the counter waiting to be served, but he felt his stomach churning with nerves and delight as they looked up at him. Elain gave him a beautiful, soft smile, and Lucien simply raised his eyebrows at him. 

He cleared his throat to buy him some time, suddenly feeling like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "Erm, hi, how can I help?" 

"I'd like a mint hot chocolate, and a triple chocolate cookie please!" Elain chirped. 

"Americano please, and a bit of your time if that's alright?" Lucien said, getting straight to the point. He sounded bored, but the glint in his eye told Azriel he was anything but. 

Azriel couldn't stop his cheeks from heating this time, and he knew that the blush would spread to the tips of his ears too. He nodded quickly, hoping that they would go and sit down so that he could gather his thoughts, but it seemed luck was not on his side today. Instead of going to sit down at a table, like they usually did, they waited for him to make their drinks and hand it over to them. 

Realising he had no choice, he told Nuala to cover the front for him and then let them lead the way to the table as he carried their drinks over. He sat down at the table, with Lucien and Elain sat opposite him. He put their drinks in front of them, and then fiddled with the tray, hoping that whatever was going on wouldn't be as painful as it felt it would be at the moment. 

"Sorry, I know this must feel awkward for you. I hope we haven't overwhelmed you with our advances. We just didn't know how to go about things," Elain said bashfully, looking down at her drink. 

Azriel felt stumped. He wasn't expecting an apology, he was ready to apologise for not contacting them sooner himself in all honesty. He tried to formulate a response in his head, but all his thoughts were suddenly so jumbled that he couldn’t think of what to say. 

“Do you know what  polyamory is?” Lucien asked him. Azriel shook his head, hoping that his thoughts would stop swirling around in his head, because, fuck, he was so confused. “It’s basically where people are in a relationship with more than one person, but everyone involved knows about it and is okay with it. I don’t want to freak you out, but, if you were willing, we would  _ both _ like to take you out on a date.”

Finally, Azriel’s’ head stopped spinning at that. “Wait, so as in, we could all be dating each other? That’s a thing?” he looked at the two of them, his eyes widening. He had thought about how he wished he could date them both, but he didn’t think that was a real option. 

“Only if you were interested. We would maybe like to go out on a date, the three of us, to see how things go if that’s okay with you?” Elain asked, her eyes widening with hope. 

Azriel felt excitement rush through him. This was really happening. He didn’t have to pin from afar anymore. “I would really like that,” he said, feeling a blush cover his face, ears, and neck, but he didn’t even care. He quickly pulled his phone out and made a group chat with Elain and Lucien, so they would both have his number. 

“Azriel, erm, I think we’ve maybe taken up enough of your time. Also, there’s a really strange man stood at the counter and he’s got a bit of a psychopathic grin on his face,” Elain said, pressing her lips together to try and stop herself from laughing. 

Azriel turned around to see that Cassian was stood behind the counter, getting in Nuala’s way while Cerridwen tried to move him out of the way, however, with Cassian being such a giant there was not much progress being made. Cassian was too busy giving thumbs up gestures to Elain and Lucien, as well as doing what looked like a celebration dance. 

Azriel rubbed his temples. “Sorry, that’s my brother, he’s just very-”

“Very excited Azriel has a date! This is such a rare event, I just had to come and see it when Nuala told Cerridwen what was going on.”

“Fucking hell Cassian I told you to keep your big mouth shut!” Nuala exclaimed, making the customer she was serving jump a little. She gave an apologetic smile to the customer, shot Cassian a glare and then carried on making the order she was making. 

Cerridwen stopped trying to fight Cassian and instead turned to Azriel. “Sorry Az, I tried to stop them from being so nosy but you know how they are.”

Azriel gave her a small nod of comradery because he and Cerridwen had suffered a lot because of Cassian and Nuala’s love of gossip. He then turned to Elain and Lucien, giving them a small smile. “I’m sorry, I should get going, otherwise I think my business is going to go bust.”

Elain let out a small, dramatic gasp. “We can’t have that! You guys do the best cakes. I need to get whoever bakes them to teach me their secrets, but until then you can’t close!”

“Thank you, Cerridwen is the one who does most the baking. I’ll mention your hight praise to her.” Azriel said, smiling as he stood up. Elain and Lucien stood up with him, Elain hugging him, and Lucien kissing the back of his hand, both actions sending tingles of excitement down his spine. 

It had been a long time since Azriel had been this excited about anything, but he had a very good feeling about this date. 

**Author's Note:**

> As per usual, please let me know what you think of the fic! I always love to talk to people, so leave a comment or come chat to me on tumblr, I'm @perseusannabeth


End file.
